Route reliability record
PVD→PHL
Providence to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 770
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 237 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 6.4% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about four flights in five arrive on time, worth a B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 770 PVD to PHL flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.
Best time to fly PVD to PHL: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Friday. Flights in that window arrived on time 89.2% of the time and Friday flights 85.5%, against 78.4% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
78.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 721 completed flights
Avg delay
150 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
6.36%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
87.8% on time across 370 flights
These figures cover 770 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on PVD to PHL
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 370 | 87.8% | 210 min | 2.43% | A |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 37 | 81.1% | 124 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 363 | 67.5% | 126 min | 11.02% | C− |
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Providence to Philadelphia
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 3 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. PVD → PHLProvidence to Philadelphia | American Airlines | 85.7% | 87.8% | 2.43% | 5am–8am, Fri | — |
| 2. BOS → PHLBoston to Philadelphia | Republic Airways | 75.1% | 78.4% | 4.22% | 5am–8am, Sat | YX 5845 06:50 |
| 3. BOS → PHLBoston to Philadelphia | American Airlines | 74.0% | 76.2% | 2.84% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
| 4. BOS → PHLBoston to Philadelphia | JetBlue Airways | 68.2% | 70.7% | 3.59% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 29 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am334 flights89.2%
- 8am–11am131 flights76.7%
- 11am–2pm79 flights83.5%
- 2pm–5pm126 flights61.0%
- 5pm–8pm99 flights59.8%
- 8pm–5am1 flights—
Scale runs 50% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 59.8% on time, against 89.2% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 334 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter PVD to PHL by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On PVD to PHL, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 89.2% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 59.8%, a wide gap of 29.4 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am89.2%
- 8–11am76.7%
- 11am–2pm83.5%
- 2–5pm61.0%
- 5–8pm59.8%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 50% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 34 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
August is the worst month at 64.1% on time, 34 points below April, the best at 98.0%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. August was the busiest month here, with 131 flights.
Across the week, Friday is the strongest day at 85.5% on time and Monday the weakest at 68.7%, a spread of 17 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 49% of the 23,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 49%Carrier
- 38%Late-arriving aircraft
- 9%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
38% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 23,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 10 to one. The split is drawn from 23,384 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 49%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 11,000 of the 23,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations run at 6.36%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in fifteen cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
10.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
At 237 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg runs 75.7% on time across 769 flights, within 3 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 770 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in PHL after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 6.36% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about 2.5 hours; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 721 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PVD to PHL questions
How often is PVD to PHL delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 21.6% of the 770 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 2.5 hours on average.
How reliable is PVD to PHL compared with the rest of the country?
78.4% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of about a point in its favour. That is worth a B− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on PVD to PHL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.2% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 59.8%, 29 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are August delays on PVD to PHL?
August is the weakest month at 64.1% on time, compared with 98.0% in April. Across the year that is 34 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- PHL to PVD — the return legseparate record
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- American Airlines on PVD to PHL87.8%
- PSA Airlines on PVD to PHL67.5%
- PVD to DCA, a related route71.0%
- ATL to PHL, a related route74.6%
- PVD to BWI, a related route86.9%
- American Airlines on-time record87.8%
- Republic Airways on-time record81.1%
- PSA Airlines on-time record67.5%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. PVD to PHL and PHL to PVD are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed PVD to PHL’s on-time badge on your site
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Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.